Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T14:10:29.725Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Squatting and the Law

from Part I - Squatting and the State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2022

Lorna Fox O'Mahony
Affiliation:
Essex Law School
Marc L. Roark
Affiliation:
Southern University Law Center
Get access

Summary

The options available to states to respond to squatting, including through law, are wide-ranging, sometimes dynamic and always revealing of the complex relationships between land, housing and shelter, poverty and ownership, citizenship and exclusion in each jurisdiction, in particular moments. The legal tools adopted and applied in response to squatting vary by jurisdiction (and within jurisdictions, by level of state action, for example, local vs national), and over time. In this chapter we introduce key elements within legal responses to homeless squatting in each of five jurisdictions that we draw on to inform our analysis throughout the book: Ireland, England and Wales, South Africa, Spain and the United States of America. In drawing examples and illustrations from a range of diverse jurisdictions, we aim to follow the advice of Van der Walt and Walsh, to pay: “…close attention to jurisdictional differences, and to broader social, economic and cultural considerations not always apparent from the face of constitutional texts, legislative provisions or even judicial decisions.” Our aim in this chapter is to set out the “legal base-line” for the book, locating these laws in their historical, geographical and social context. In doing so, we introduce an array of potential legal responses to squatting: including regularization of unlawful occupation (enabling the squatter to acquire rights in land), and a range of civil actions and criminal sanctions targeted at unlawful occupiers or absent owners.

Type
Chapter
Information
Squatting and the State
Resilient Property in an Age of Crisis
, pp. 90 - 142
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×